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Texas flood......where does all the trash go now?

Can you imagine all the trash that this flood will regenerate? Hopefully, much of the cars can be recycled...if only as metal.
Hopefully, the millions of plastic bottles of water will be recycled. But where does all the other trash go??........machines, wood, carpet, insulation, on and on and on and on...........

Can you imagine all the trash that this flood will regenerate? Hopefully, much of the cars can be recycled...if only as metal.
Hopefully, the millions of plastic bottles of water will be recycled. But where does all the other trash go??........machines, wood, carpet, insulation, on and on and on and on...........

Funny I thought the same thing! I remember after Katrina - it seemed like acres and acres of refrigerators with rotting food. All the molding household items.

when people are in crisis, concern for the environment is one of the first things set aside. There is just too much and it is just too overwhelming. Most likely everything will be trucked to landfills somewhere.

I was horrified to watch a news report yesterday in which a reporter with some lab techs in a boat collected several samples of flood water from Houston streets. They came back positively riddled with E. Coli and chemical contaminants---seriously, THOUSANDS of times above the EPA's recommended safe levels.

I wonder if the companies who do the recycling can deal with items that have been soaked in such contaminated water? And what does it mean for the environment if this massive amount of debris enters the landfills all at once? Not to mention the health impact on anyone and everyone who had to wade through that crap even once, not to mention for days on end, in the case of first responders with some form of protection, and just neighbors helping neighbors. Shudder!

I wonder if the companies who do the recycling can deal with items that have been soaked in such contaminated water?

A lot of recycling -- metal and plastic for sure -- involves melting the recovered product for use in new products, which would take care of the bacterial issues. I imagine it would be possible to bleach fabric fibers for re-use, which would help clean up upholstered items and some floor coverings. But I have no idea what could happen beyond a landfill for thousands of board feet of wet moldy drywall and laminate flooring and thousands of cubic feet of sewage-damaged toys, mixed-plastic objects, disposables, etc.

And all of that assumes that a market exists at a competitive price for the recycled raw material or no one will go to the trouble of recycling it.

Harvey's effects will ripple through our economy for some time to come, in some surprising places, I think.

If Americans expended even a fraction of the energy on civic engagement that we spend on consumer ideology, our democracy would be much healthier. Can you imagine people camping out to vote? -- Charles Roberts, Amherst, Mass., Nov. 25, 2006

Anyone see pictures of Fire Ant rafts? The miserable creatures intertwine their legs and make a raft to survive. I would not want to run into one of those. Their bites hurt for days. I really hate them and don't venture off a sidewalk without socks and shoes, never in sandals.

Plus snakes and alligators are swimming around. And who knows what else. All the cars that were swamped I am sure leaked all kinds of fluids. Plus gas stations.

Anyone see pictures of Fire Ant rafts? The miserable creatures intertwine their legs and make a raft to survive. I would not want to run into one of those. Their bites hurt for days. I really hate them and don't venture off a sidewalk without socks and shoes, never in sandals.

Plus snakes and alligators are swimming around. And who knows what else.

Reasons 67, 68, and 69 why I live by a cliff over the Mississippi River in a land with a frostline six feet deep.

If Americans expended even a fraction of the energy on civic engagement that we spend on consumer ideology, our democracy would be much healthier. Can you imagine people camping out to vote? -- Charles Roberts, Amherst, Mass., Nov. 25, 2006

I hope that the pictures from Houston make people think about the literal mountains of debris that will have to be processed. Everything we consume meets its end. Some of it much sooner than later. Let us try to consume less and be an example of an alternative. Bicyclist